Page 61 of Won't Back Down
“Sit. I’ll make dinner. There’s a lot we need to tell you.” I’d do better keeping my hands busy while I talked.
As I pulled out ingredients and began to chop, measure, and mix, Sawyer got out beers for us all. I spilled out the whole story, telling Jace everything about the inheritance, all the crap Mom and Dad had tried to pull, and all the reasons Sawyer and I had ended up married in a hurry. Mostly Sawyer let me take the lead, only adding in a few details here and there. By the time we’d brought Jace up to date on the latest threat, I was sliding plates of steaming food onto the table.
His response to the whole thing was a lengthy string of creative profanity. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry for not being there when you needed me. If I’d known—well, I don’t think I could’ve gotten free of this mission regardless, but I had absolutely no idea that they’d resort to such tactics. I thought they’d left all that behind once you were a grown adult.”
I lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug that looked a lot more blasé than I felt. “None of us expected Granddaddy and Grandma to leave me basically everything. Sorry about that. It wasn’t exactly fair to you.”
“It was absolutely fair. My life isn’t here. Yours is. You were the one who lived up to the Sutter name. I don’t begrudge you any of it, Wills.”
I hadn’t fully realized the worry I’d carried about exactly that until he absolved me of it. My brother was a better man than I gave him credit for.
“Anyway, I understand the marriage of convenience. It’s kind of nuts, but it makes sense. But that’s not what this is.” He wagged a finger between the two of us. “I mean, I knew she had a crush on you as a kid, but I didn’t expect this.”
“I’ve loved her most of my life.”
Sawyer had said little during all the explanations, letting me take the lead on how much and what to tell Jace. But at his quiet declaration, my head snapped toward him.
The corner of his mouth tipped up into a half-smile. “You didn’t think you were the only one, did you, Wren? Malones fall once, and they fall hard.”
He loved me. Not just now, but for years. The same as I had him. Emotion lodged in my chest like a glowing coal, warming me from the inside out.
“But… why didn’t you say anything back then?” I sputtered.
“Because you were too young back then. And Jace would’ve been absolutely right to kick my ass.”
I rolled my eyes. “Boys.” But I leaned into his touch anyway, relaxing as his lips brushed my temple.
Jace huffed. “This is…”
Scowling, I stabbed at a roasted potato. “If you dare pull some kind of he’s-not-good-enough-for-me, big-brother bullshit?—”
“Sawyer is one of my best friends. Why the hell would I think he wasn’t good enough for you?”
I closed my mouth with a click.
My husband leaned over to rub at my nape, his finger tracing my tattoo, and I loved that reminder of what was effectively our little secret.
“What I was going to say was that if you two are happy together, I’m certainly not going to stand in your way. And, not gonna lie, I’m grateful you’ve got someone watching out for you. Above and beyond all the reasons you ended up here, you both deserve all the happiness in the world. Don’t let Mom and Dad fuck it up.”
“Thank you for that. We don’t intend to. How long are you here?”
“It’s a fast trip. I’ve only got a couple of days before I have to get back.”
“Well then, we’ll just have to throw a party before you leave.”
CHAPTER 28
SAWYER
Jace dropped into a wingback chair beside the fireplace in the den after we’d finished eating and clearing up the dinner dishes. “There’s one thing I don’t understand.”
Willa snorted as she snuggled up against me on the leather sofa, Roy curling up in the crook of her legs. “Only one? You’re doing pretty well, then.”
“If Granddaddy and Grandma had left everything to me instead of you, would Dad be pulling this same shit?”
It was a question I hadn’t considered, but Willa’s answer was instant. “Of course not. They have no grounds for a competency claim against you. You’re a decorated naval officer without a history of documented mental illness. They wouldn’t have the same… vulnerabilities to exploit with you.”
I couldn’t stop myself from tightening my arm around her. Jace watched us, his face unreadable. He’d effectively given us his blessing, but what else would he say in front of his sister? Anything less would damage their already shaky relationship, and I knew he didn’t want that. He’d said all the right things, but I still wondered if he was really okay with us as an us.